Psycho, Interrupted

I had an unusually horrifying day today, beginning with having no hot water and progressively sliding downhill from there; band-aids were even involved toward the end. But through all the setbacks, pre-emptions, and lacerations I still had a little pep in my step, because someone very poisonous and revolting just left this mortal coil. Needless to say, I’m talking about Andrew Breitbart.

I’m somewhat hesitant to admit this, given that grave-dancing is generally an avocation of the right; pill-popping Rush Limbaugh has repeatedly chortled over the demise of various “dead dopers,” just as Breitbart himself unleashed a barrage of slander against Ted Kennedy the day he died. On the day of their passing, even the most thoroughly dreadful people are thought to “deserve” some respect, if only for the sake of their families. Well, I don’t buy it. As Marc Antony put it, the evil men do lives long after them, while the good is interred with their bones; if that’s so, Breitbart won’t need a very big hole, to put it delicately.

As for the evil, the list is long, and it will long outlive him; with the exception of Anthony Weiner, all of his victims were innocent, and he went to his grave never having apologized to any of them. Had his vicious, intentionally misleading slanders against ACORN and Shirley Sherrod contained even a grain of truth, he might have been forgiven for simply falling victim to his own overzealous partisanship, but the fact remains that he dedicated his short life to mercilessly attacking a lengthening list of enemies, truth be damned.

Like every other power-drunk right-winger, he never tired of whining about being the victim of imaginary liberal conspiracies, even as he relentlessly conspired, with the help of his merry band of misfits, to do harm to others by any means necessary. Remorseless as he was paranoid, every other month he loudly proclaimed the imminent demise of everything from “the institutional left” to Obama’s reelection, and if reality stubbornly failed to conform to his fevered ramblings, he wasn’t shy about attempting to create it out of whole cloth. Too often, he was successful.

Most of the obituaries I’ve read so far are refreshingly honest; all admit that the guy was no hero, but they daintily hesitate to let fly, when letting fly is just what is needed. Yeah, the guy had “passion,” but that sort of passion can be found in any dive bar after midnight. And he had “beliefs,” too, beliefs of the sort that lead many a grabby young know-nothing to a cushy and failure-free life on the wingnut welfare rolls. He was also “outspoken,” but given the video above, that wasn’t anything to be proud of. Surely no one cringed harder at that performance than the wife and children we’re supposed to be fretting over today.

Sadly, Breitbart’s demise won’t do anything to stop the brand of “journalism” he created. As the right moves further and further from the bounds of both reality and decency, the demand for malicious and fake “news” that serves, however ephemerally, their nefarious causes, is all but inexhaustible. And last time I checked, the world wasn’t exactly running out of bombastic, mendacious charlatans willing to sell their souls, not to mention their reputations, to advance the selfish goals of scheming billionaires. Even the Grim Reaper can’t change that, but today you have to give him credit for trying.

14 Comments

Had a weird day myself. Bomb threat at the high school (which turned out to be a hoax), and while reading that Breitbart dropped dead, thought it might be a hoax as well. A publicity stunt not beneath him. Happily, it turned out to be true.

Like you, I feel good riddance and hope his entire BIG empire collapses. His minions not only lacked talent and originality, they lack any substantive support; which is why that punk O’Keefe has to keep begging for spare change for his iPhone video trash.

The only thing that bothers me is that anyone is paying any attention to Breitbart’s sudden death. He was a ticking time bomb. No doubt his high-strung, coke-fuled personality shredded his arteries. Malignant narcissists always self-destruct one way or another, either by self-sabotaging to the point of merciless scandal and are banned from polite society, or they explode like he did.

Well, thanks, because this post was supposed to be on the front page at FDL tonight, and I got CENSORED. Not respectable; but go ahead and post at myFDL. Ironically, I had moved to the rec list and the first comment said, “Honesty is like a breath of fresh air,” right before they made me delete that, too….
Who knew firebaggers were so dainty?

From what I heard all day yesterday, the asshole was really just a nice guy if ya got to chat with him one on one – which makes his showboat ranting and raving in public that much worse. He wasn’t necessarily doing it out of any burning conviction but because it put on a good show and insured that he was garishly in the public eye. (And he made lots of money doing it.) Of course his minions were quite convinced of his sincerity and gladly followed him to his evil ends. Good riddance I say – now if only Rush (“Susan” Sandra Fluke is a slut and a whore for wanting birth control)Limbaugh would follow him to the grave many folks days would be better.

This bit of drek has not gotten nearly enough attention, although Olbermann had him as a “worst person” recently. I don’t get Current TV on my cable, so I watch a few excerpts here and there.

Between this diatribe and Rush Limbaugh’s recent skid marks, it seems all the petty, unresolved resentments of the right wing are bubbling to the surface. At times past, they were able to suppress their dark impulses and adolescent grudges to some extent, but that’s all over now.

Humiliate the poor. Humiliate the immigrants. Humiliate women. Humiliate blacks. All policies promoted by these people are designed to degrade, humiliate, disenfranchise and punish everyone who is not a white collar, white male. The are like cornered rats, lashing out at everything they feel threatens their imaginary superiority.

If Brion had any real power, he could be scary since he’s such a douchebag; but, he’s merely a cruel, impotent crybaby. Plus, he’s from the deep South, so duh.

Your nicely-written send-off to the shade of AB should have made it onto the “dainty” (haven’t seen that word in an age!) pages of FDL to clear some of the foetid air surrounding the man’s demise. Most of the obits I’ve seen have been pure hagiography, almost to Reaganesque levels, to the point of absurdity, but then the deceased was granted far more credit in the decadent media firmament than his “balls” (you should excuse the term) warranted. His kind of “investigative journalism” — full of smash and grab, slash and burn — is what they one day aspire to do themselves. So they can become as famous as he was.

Boggling.

As for being censored at FDL, have the PTB over yonder seen what the Rude One wrote? Hm?

“Censored Half the Time at Firedoglake!” would be a helluva motto atop this blog, I suppose. Sorry to read that you were, really. There’s something about death that brings out the ‘play-fair’ gene in progressives and their editors.

I’m also surprised to learn of this because I know the Rude Pundit’s fine, but much less kind, obit was viewed kindly. Oh, well, one never knows. We who’ve been censored welcome you to our ranks! My first yank was a fine rant about the Senate’s fucking-over on health insurance reform.

At least Breitbart died alone, surrounded only by his dog. And perhaps its poop.

Sorry you were censored at FDL, as your comments seem appropriate to me.

I don’t wish to dance on anyone’s grave, nor stoop to the disgusting level that Breitbart did. But Breitbart’s family will continue to reap the financial rewards of the ill-gotten filthy lucre that Breitbart whored for by destroying the lives, jobs and reputations of people who, quite simply, didn’t deserve it.

As you state, if Breitbart’s destructiveness had been accomplished with even a *grain* of factual reality & truth involved, I *might* have some amount of ??? sympathy, tolerance, whatever for what Breitbart did.

But frankly Breitbart was a well-known liar who created fantasies to drive ACORN out of business, to drive Shirley Sherrod out of highly accomplished job, and so on.

Anyone who wishes to *praise* this lying creep is full of it. Sadly with Breitbart gone, there’ll just be another lowly scum-sucking bottom dweller who’ll only be too happy to take Breitbart’s place and prostitute themselves out to the lowest bidder.